Exploring drivers’ interest in different levels of autonomous vehicles: Insights from Java Island, Indonesia

Abstract

The number of people who have adopted autonomous vehicle (AV) technology in developing countries, such as Indonesia, remains considerably lower than in developed countries due to insufficient AV infrastructure and a lack of awareness of AV technology. Since the public’s understanding and perception of AV technology is the main obstacle to AV acceptance, it is important to examine the critical factors that can be correlated with a person’s perception of different AV levels. Despite this, the relationship between an individual’s awareness of AV technology in current vehicles and their perspective toward different levels of AV technology has not been studied in great detail. This study aims to identify the ideal AV level at which autonomous vehicle technology can be deployed in Indonesia by using descriptive statistics to analyze the public’s perspectives toward AV technology across the nation. A survey of 629 respondents, a majority of whom were concentrated on Java Island and used their vehicle on a daily basis, revealed that most respondents preferred the use of level 2 AV technology. These results also revealed the relationship between the respondent’s willingness to use each AV level and several critical demographic factors, such as gender, education, employment, familiarity and previous experience with AV technology, offering insight into the preferences of a wide range of people. The study concludes that AV stakeholders, especially the government, should prepare a realistic strategy to support AV adoption at a higher level of automation. Furthermore, improving the general populace’s awareness and knowledge of AVs is important to increase AV acceptance in Indonesia.

Keywords

• Autonomous Vehicle
• Demographics
• Descriptive Statistics
• Interest
• Autonomy Levels